The Home Selling Roadmap

Start with the Right Real Estate Agent

The first step is picking the right agent, someone who knows your area, current market trends, and someone that you will click with personality wise. Your agent should be able to provide you with current sales data as well as recently sold comparative homes to guide you in setting an appropriate price.

Setting the Price

There are many factors that go into setting an appropriate price: current market trends, nearby recently sold homes, the condition of your home, and how quickly you want or need your home to sell. Your agent will guide you through each of these factors to help you set the right price.

Prepare the Home for Sale

This step is far too often overlooked. As a seller, you need to step back and evaluate your home through the eyes of a potential buyer. When you first walk into the home, what is the initial impression? Is the carpet dirty? If so, a buyer’s mind may begin to wonder what else is dirty or neglected. Visual flaws will create a lessor perception of the home.

It is also important to declutter your home. Clutter makes spaces look smaller, and smaller spaces are less attractive to potential buyers. I often see closets filled to the brim in an attempt to hide stuff. Unfortunately, that creates the impression that the closest is too small and may turn off a buyer.

Offers and Negotiation

When a potential buyer is interested in purchasing your home, they will submit an offer. Offers have various components – price the buyer is offering to pay, amount of earnest money they are willing to put up front, date to close the transaction by, and any other additional contingencies (such as seller contributing to closing costs or contingent upon buyer selling their own home first).

Your agent will help you evaluate each offer that comes in and will guide you in how to respond (accept, decline or counter offer).

Under Contract

Once you and the buyer come to agreement, you are now under contract to sell and will enter the escrow process. The buyer will likely have an inspection performed on the home, a lender will have a professional appraisal conducted and the title company will begin researching the history and status of the home’s title.

Throughout the escrow process, there may arise points of negotiation. For example, if the home inspection comes back with problems, the buyer may choose to negotiate repairs.

Closing

And then comes closing, when all paperwork has been signed, the lender has transferred the funds for purchase, and the transaction has been recorded to transfer ownership. The keys get passed on to the buyer and the transaction is complete.

Time is of the Essence

As with real estate in general, timing is crucial. Once under contract, there are specific deadlines that must be met to protect you as the seller and to ensure the purchase is able to close on time. Your agent will guide you through these important deadlines and will make sure you provide the proper disclosures to the buyer as required by law.